Overanalyzing anime and crying over fictional characters

Author: Lethe

Let’s talk about Todoroki and the way he relates to people.
Specifically, to Midoriya and Bakugou.
I think it’s safe to say that the three of them are, at this point in the story, the Main Three. They’re arguably the strongest boy in class 1-A. They’re also, as I mentioned briefly before foils for each other.
So how do they relate?

Where Midoriya strikes up an easy friendship with Iida and Ururaka from the start, and Bakugou seems to become bro’s with Kirishima fairly early on, Todoroki is… slow to warm up to people.
The kid has spent his childhood isolated, so that’s easy to understand.
If you want to go symbolic, you could also say that his fire side, and how he uses it, quite literally makes him warm up to people. Getting to grips with that side of himself is a major part of his character development, and as he becomes more attuned to his own personality, it makes sense that he’d become more comfortable with other people as well.

Sports Festival

Let’s start at de sports festival, because we get some very nice development for all three of them.

Todoroki vs Midoriya

Todoroki singles Midoriya out fairly early on, when he does that whole ‘declaration of war’ thing. At this point, I don’t think he does this purely based on merit? The kid he’s ‘going to beat’ barely made it into UA, he’s nowhere near the top of the class but Todoroki can recognize a quality seedling when he sees one.
He watched Midoriya’s fight with Bakugou in the Heroes & Villains exercise, he watched Midoriya jump in during the villain invasion.
And what he recognized there was that out of all of his classmates,Midoriya is the one most like All Might.
He even says this, at some point.

And while it’s played off as a joke, with him assuming he’s All Might’s illegitimate son, he’s not… that far off, really?
Either way, it’s this link that draws him to Midoriya.
Todoroki, you see, is an All Might fanboy. (they literally all are)
He may have been ‘created’ as an Endeavour 2.0, to BEAT All Might, but in those moments with his mom, what he truly wanted was to be LIKE All Might.
He wants to be that kind of hero.
All Might himself mentions that the both of them had the same sort of vibe.
Among his peers, Midoriya is the closest to All Might 2.0, in type of power, in general disposition and in the sense that they’re literally pretty close.
It makes sense that Todoroki would see him as ‘the one to beat’.

Incidentally, this insight also makes Todoroki more likely to actually listen to Midoriya.
At this point, the kid is very dismissive of others.
It could be Kirishima telling him not to start fights, Bakugou coming to yell at him or even villains trying to murder All Might.

Todoroki kind of just swipes them aside as a ‘nuisance’.However, when Midoriya talks, he listens.

Maybe it’s the All Might thing,
maybe it’s because the kid has a power that Todoroki is instinctively afraid of.
Or maybe, it’s because he knows that Midoriya is completely insane.
This is a student who is willing to injure himself to negate attacks. He’s willing to literally break his body to save people or win at things. He will literally do anything to come out on top.
To Todoroki this must look even weirder than to us, viewers.
Self-discipline, control, stoicism is his whole deal. He acts logically, and Midoriya is like the opposite of that, in a fight.When the kid that just broke all his fingers starts yelling at him, he will damn well pay attention.And when Midoriya, in his duel with Todoroki, says ‘Where are you looking’, he wants Todoroki to stop thinking of his dad and actually keep his head in the fight.

It works, too.
For once, Todoroki goes full out, and he later admits to his father that the reason he did so, was because he completely forgot about him. He let his instinct take over. Like he did in the cavalry battle. He’s so impressed with Midoriya’s innate strength that he can’t help but go all out.

Todoroki vs Bakugou

If Midoriya is the classmate most resembling All Might,
then in Todoroki’s eyes Bakugou must be the one most resembling Endeavour.
Certainly during the sports festival.
He’s brash. He’s so very full of himself, even his destructive power is similar to Endeavour’s flames. At this point Bakugou is also way more about being ‘number one’ and winning than about saving people.
As such, Todoroki has a very different rivalry with Bakugou than he has with Midoriya. Bakugou isn’t ‘special’ in the eyes of Todoroki.Not like Midoriya is.

Look at that kid. Todoroki just told Midoriya he wanted to beat him.
He told Midoriya, not Bakugou, first place student in the entry exam, that he sees him as his main rival.
And that Pisses Bakugou Off.Because in Bakugou’s world, he’s the best.Certainly at this point in the story.
And Todoroki just.…refuses to acknowledge him.
You see this again and again.

The kid, admittedly, has an awful lot to deal with at this point. He’s very much trying to find himself, preferably in the ten minutes before the next fight.
So he’s back to dismissing anyone. Including Bakugou.
Fun fact: it’s really hard to dismiss of Bakugou.

When Bakugou says ‘Where are you looking’, he wants the kid to pay attention to him. But of course, that just reminds Todoroki of Deku, and that is incidentally the worst thing you could say to Bakugou.

I think it’s safe to say that these two just really don’t click.
Bakugou is a blip on Todoroki’s radar, and that really, really frustrates him, because all he wants is to beat Todoroki in a fair fight.
The way Midoriya received a fair fight.

It’s interesting to note that even in this fight, Todoroki only uses his flame side when Midoriya yells at him from the stands.Midoriya is literally the fan to his flame.
But this time it doesn’t work.

So what made him extinguish those flames near the end?
It could be a lot of things. Todoroki is still in turmoil. He told his father he needed to think about things, and he hasn’t exactly had a lot of time to process in between the two fights. It would be highly unrealistic if one shouting session miraculously healed all Todoroki’s ingrained trauma.
You see him get a little flashback to his mom and dad right before his flames go out, which very much indicates that he’s just really struggling.There’s also the very nature of Bakugou.
When he fights him, all Todoroki sees is flames and smoke.
All he hears is boasting. It feels very different.
The link to his father is much stronger.
Though both Bakugou and Midoriya want the same thing, to fight him at full power, Todoroki can only feel the need to do so when fighting Midoriya.

It’s not really Bakugou’s fault, but it just servers to frustrate him more.

Delving into manga territory now

Todoroki vs Midoriya, round 2

So how does it evolve from here on out?
The training camp arc is one of those first times we see Todoroki in his newer, softer form, though change is still slow.

Lookit my child creating fire to cook for his friends.

This is also about the time Midoriya and Todoroki seem to have reached some kind of understanding.
He even gives him some of the most symbolic advise I’ve read in this series.

Considering their background, this is really beautiful.
Todoroki is telling him how to deal with Kouta,
but it harkens back to their fight, and also to Todoroki’s past.If anyone can understand how Kouta feels, it’s Todoroki, after all.
Endeavour may have told him what to do and how to behave all his life, that didn’t make him want to do it.
He simply didn’t believe it, because Endeavour didn’t really act like a hero (or even a decent human being) to his family.All Might is Todoroki’s only real idol. He’s the reason he wants to be a hero, because he’s always saving people.
In a way, he’s telling Midoriya that the only reason he understood him during their duel, was because Midoriya was willing to get brutally murdered (ok almost) in order to save him.

But I digress.
Basically, over the course of the next few arcs, Todoroki sort of softens towards several of his classmates, including Midoriya.
It’s pretty funny that once he stops isolating himself and actually notices the people around him, he’s a pretty sensitive guy.
He is the first to notice that Midoriya’s affected by the stuff happening in his internship, for instance.

He’s also the one to offer comfort here.

Todoroki vs Bakugou, round 2

His relationship with Bakugou, meanwhile, hasn’t changed much, given the kid’s reaction to drawing him as a partner in the test of courage.

Also please note how awesome Todoroki’s ‘are you kidding me’ face is in this panel.

I actually really like these two in this arc, because what they do half the time is squabble and it’s funny.

I would almost call it a friendly rivalry? Sort of thing?
It’s obvious they don’t particularly like each other personally.But they also don’t hate each other. Not really.
They may have gained a certain level of respect for each other, even.
They’re perfectly capable of working together, if need be.

A scene like that, where they work together to take down Tokoyami’s berserk shadow, requires a level of understanding and communication that I don’t see happening between Midoriya and Bakugou, for instance.
Not any time soon, at least.
We also learn in the provisional license exam that if Todoroki really hates a guy, he has trouble cooperating with him.We see none of that here. They are willing to acknowledge each other.
Todoroki cares enough to be one of the first to decide on rescuing Bakugou.
This doesn’t mean they stop squabbling though.

All this time together for the provisional license course, and the only one that has grown a little is Todoroki.Please note the use of ‘we’ here.
But his banter with Bakugou isn’t that different from his talks with others in his class. He’s slowly opening up to his classmates and, true, Bakugou is one of them. He’s not dismissing him anymore. In a way, Bakugou is just one of his classmates now, just like all the others.Which probably just pisses him off, tbh.

I feel like Bakugou is definitely one of the more complex characters in BnHA, absolutely the one with the biggest personal arc, the typical ‘antagonist who is one of the good guys but also an asshole’.It’s a trope, I’m sure.
My initial idea was to make a single profile for him, but something like that would quickly become a full length novel because there’s Way Too Much to unpack, so I’ma settle for a Whole Bunch of Smaller (but still Stupidly Long) meta’s.Starting with: Bakugou’s Pride, and his self-image.Also, since I’m far from the only person making BnHA analyses, shout-out to @saisai-chan who has posted just… so much Bakugou meta, and who has been very helpful in inspiring some of these ideas.

Bakugou’s Perfect Origin Story

Let’s start with how stories work in the BnHA universe.
Horikoshi is writing a very self aware story. His universe is a modern one, in which marketing and imagery are important.
You can see it in All Might. This is a man that clearly gets his inspiration from American Silver Age comics. He’s flashy, just all-round GOOD and constantly spouting americanisms. And while he isn’t necessarily ‘fake’ in the sense that Yagi’s personality definitely matches, it is also just that: a meticulously crafted image.
It even literally ‘pops’ when he’s out of the limelight to reveal his true form.
In this world, heroes are celebrities, as such they project a certain image.
Even the kids know this. People like Kirishima are told that hero-ing is all about the ratings and the entertainment factor.
This is a world in which Stories matter.

Bakugou knows this.
I truly believe that Bakugou, being the smart sort of fanboy he is, is pretty damn genre-savvy. He’s well aware of the importance of images and stories.
You see, he had already decided upon his Perfect Origin Story, like, ages ago. From a very young age, he was destined for greatness.
Everyone kept telling him so, of course. He didn’t really have a reason to doubt this.
He’s shown as a kid sporting a bunch of yes-men and admirers. His teachers never seem inclined to curb that boastfulness. Before he arrives in UA, no one ever seems to try to take him down a peg. Like at all.
He can be blowing up Midoriya in a classroom with the teacher still present and no one even attempts to stop him.

This, incidentally, is a pretty unhealthy way to grow up, and it did little to curb the crueler sides of his personality.

But he still wants to be a hero. He wants the money, the fame. He wants to WIN.
Please note that right now, he wants to be a hero for all the wrong reasons. Where Midoriya has this compulsion to help, where Kirishima is looking for courage and some sense of manhood, Bakugou just wants to be better than everyone else. Because, at this point in his development, he’s very much a selfish asshole.

And he’s determined to do be the best, by also crafting the Best Origin Story.
He’s even made these rules for himself. ‘I have to be the only one from this small local school to make it into UA’, ‘I have to be always on top, never be helped’.
He’s completely fixated on ‘the right back story’ because the fucker is a hero fanboy and he wants to Live the Life like the big heroes do it.

And Deku, bless him, is Constantly Fucking up that Plan.
At least that’s what it must look like in Kacchan’s eyes.

But truth be told, Bakugou’s Perfect Hero Origin Story has been falling apart since the very start of the series.BnHA may be the story of Midoriya becoming the strongest hero, but it is also very much the story of ‘how Bakugou’s self image got smashed into the ground over and over again’.

Once he’s ready to enter UA, his Origin Story is already muddled.
Instead of the right debut under the right circumstances, he’s Sludge Kid.
Instead of never being helped, being the only on in his class to go to UA, being destined to greatness, he finds himself, literally, a side character, an antagonist even, in Deku’s story.
And I honestly believe that Bakugou, at some point, realizes this. Everyone likes a good underdog story. Part of the reason Bakugou is so angry with Midoriya when he finds out about his quirk, is because he feels Betrayed. Like Midoriya hid his quirk all these years just to have a proper ‘rise to power’ story.
It’s a first crack in the perfect façade that Bakugou has created for himself.
Right now, he still believes in his ‘destiny’, but it won’t be for long.

Hero-in-training.

Bakugou’s self-esteem takes a pretty big hit when he gets into the hero course.
Suddenly, there’s people like Todoroki, who are also, in many ways, destined to greatness.
When he hits UA, Bakugou is the very definition of a big fish from a little pond, who gets moved to a bigger pond and finds, suddenly, that he’s not that big or fancy.A similar thing happens to kids in a lot of schooling systems, where they’re the smartest kid in class all through primary school, but then they move to a bigger school and are put together with kids their level and suddenly they’re not the hottest shit in class anymore.
It’s a grounding experience and usually it’s a healthy thing.
It is also literally what happens to Bakugou, only with way more explosions and heartbreak.
Because while he can probably deal with Momo and Todoroki,
Midoriya just… baffles him.

Let’s start with that first Heroes x Villains fight.

Here’s Deku, the kid who has been a ‘pebble in the road’ for Bakugou since forever, suddenly developing quirks and Standing Up to him.
Remember, he’s never friggin done that ever.
It’s been a few months since the Sludge incident and suddenly here’s this kid that has taken all his beatings for as long as he remembers, and he’s Fighting Back.
For Bakugou, this must be Very Confusing. He doesn’t know what happened. At this point, he doesn’t know about All Might and One for All and any of that shit.He just sees Deku, doing great at this hero thing.
It pisses him off, but at this point, his narrative is still ‘I’m the best’.
Todoroki might be cool (heh), but he’ll just work harder and WIN.

It isn’t until after Deku actually beats him, for the first time in their lives, that things start really crashing down for Bakugou.

And then they keep crashing down.
Like let’s be real here. A LOT of bad stuff happens to Bakugou. He very much takes the brunt of the hits this series has to offer. And because of where he started, because of his belief in being destined for greatness, a lone idol above a sea of ‘extras’, everything that happens is an attack on his self-worth.
Brick by brick, UA is pulling down his pride.

He’s suddenly in an environment where his classmates are not afraid of him.
Where he’s being made fun of.
If anything, these kids are willing to call him out on his shitty behaviour, which is something apparently no one has ever done before.And honestly, this is probably a good thing. His inflated sense of self, his pride, it’s one of his main motivators, but it’s also what causes his downfall in a lot of fights.He’s brash, he’s overconfident and one of these days that will get his ass killed. This is the thread running through most of his fights, it’s his pride that lets him down when he’s in a tight spot.
And you have to give him credit: he’s dealing with it.
He’s starting to tolerate, for instance, the presence of Kirishima, who seems completely immune to posturing and who is unimpressed with random threats.

“Then the others are basically ok, right?”

Bakugou also develops, for want of a better word, Faith in his classmates. He recognizes that they’re not weaklings. These kids in his class are not ‘extras’, they’re not like the kids in his middle school, who were only there as background noise and voices of praise.
They’re more like named characters in his story. Sidekicks.For him, that’s a pretty big step, ok?

Bakugou’s Beat them All Narrative

So Bakugou’s Perfect Origin story has failed him. He’s no longer the only big fish in the pond. It stings him to all hell that someone like Todoroki might also be good and it stings Even More that Deku could be better, because, again, the Underdog is always a better story.
What you see with the sports festival, is Bakugou trying to gain control of his own narrative again.And failing.

When he does that thing where he yells at other classes to get ‘out of the way extras’, when he walks up to the mic and pledges to wipe the floor with everyone else.That’s Bakugou abandoning his ‘perfect origin story’.
He’s dealt with it. Deku exists, Todoroki exists.
He needs something else to define him.
Bakugou has, at this point, decided on another story, one that is just as close to his heart.Be the Best.
Take your beatings and rise above.
Again, he has reason to believe this could happen. He came first in the entry exam.
If he stands alone above his class mates in an arena watched by thousands of people worldwide, that’s a great way of getting back his image. He won’t be ‘Sludge Kid’ anymore, he’ll be ‘the first year that won UA’s sports festival’.

Be the Undisputed Champion.Be Number One.
That’s his new goal.
Work hard, beat everyone else, overcome All Might.

Incidentally (and rather beautifully mirrored) this is the narrative that Endeavour has also chosen for himself.
But, as always, it doesn’t go according to plan.
This, I think, is why he’s so upset at Todoroki.
Because bless that kid, in his efforts to deal with his father’s plans, he ends up messing with Bakugou’s.

Let’s take a closer look at the Todoroki fight.

Bakugou is a smart kid. He’s a sneaky kid.He knows all the shit Todoroki’s going through with his dad. He’s seen his opponent’s fight with Midoriya and he knows, at this point, that Todoroki has leveled up.
Todoroki had sworn to never use his flame side, but, as things always go when Midoriya is involved, he’s starting to overcome that mental block.

So this is Bakugou’s chance to become Undisputed Champion.He can finally fight Todoroki at Full Power.
Only he doesn’t.

Bakugou, I truly believe this, isn’t a bad kid at this point in his development.
He would never actually hurt someone outside of a fair fight. When he fights Ochako, this is his face when he suddenly realizes she’s down.

He doesn’t enjoy it and he certainly won’t keep attacking. What he wanted, what made him LOVE that fight, was that he had an opponent he deemed worthy.
As soon as she falls, he stops.
He’s a gentleman towards Tokoyami and Kirishima as well.He doesn’t harm downed people.
So what made him snap in the Todoroki fight? What was different?
The simple fact that Todoroki didn’t go all out and at this point that’s all Bakugou wants. True Victory.
To be treated, in a way, with the same respect as Deku.
To face a Full Power Todoroki, and Win.
That’s what he needed out of that fight, and Todoroki didn’t give it to him.
As an aside, I don’t think he would have hurt Todoroki at the end there.

That’s his face when he notices the fight is over. That’s shock, frustration, fear, perhaps.
It is not Bakugou’s basic I Will Blow You Up face.
Furthermore, that bit where he sort of jiggles Todoroki around feels more like a pleading session to me. It’s Bakugou begging him to give him a better shot at the victory that he craves so much.

If anything, Midnight making him sleep is a good way to stop Bakugou from hurting himself.
You can see it at the podium scene. He’s still not over it. He is so friggin frustrated that he can never be the master of his own narrative.
The way UA treats him here, is, incidentally, pretty awful. Just want to put that out there. Here’s a kid who has lost every bit of respect he may have gotten. This is the picture of him that enters the papers. Him chained to the platform.

This is the point where I head into Manga Spoiler territory.

The Villain’s Pawn

So that’s where we are now.
In the intern arc, Bakugou has an internship with a hero that’s a really bad fit for him, because what Best Jeanist is trying, is again to mould his image.

It’s not too bad of an idea to teach Bakugou some inner peace, but with the way Jeanist is trying to do this, he’s Highly Underestimating the amount of explosive fire in the kid’s heart.

Bakugou knows that by dressing nicely he’s not going to fix his narrative.
He’s also not just going to kumbayaah his way through life.
Too much has happened.
Yes, he’s smart AF. Yes he’s super powerful, he adapts, he’s fast, he’s strong.
But that’s not how the world of BnHA sees him.
He’s sludge kid. He’s ‘that guy that beat up a cute girl’. He’s the winner of the Special Olympics that was chained to the platform. He is a possible villain.

Even Best Jeanist gives this as his motivation.Bakugou has both hero and villain in him.
This is now Bakugou’s Story. It’s what he has to overcome.
He doesn’t honestly seem that surprised when he finds himself in the lair of the League of Villains.

It’s kinda cute that he has this need, right now, to emphasize one of his principles.

And as always in a crisis, he’s calm. He’s thoughtful. Strategic.
But also, and that’s what I love about this particular arc. He is vulnerable.
Bakugou is still 15/16 years old.
He’s in his first year at UA and he’s already seen so much shit.
Placing him in this situation really brings home how young and fragile he is. How fucking scared he is.
How, at this point, all that self-confidence and attitude is nothing more than a very thin film on top of a raging storm of fear and doubt.

You really have to give the guy credit for still being able to posture and fight. Because his ego is so very fragile right now. Since middle school, it’s just taken hit after hit. He hasn’t quite hit rock bottom yet, but he’s getting there.

Look at him.This kid was So Scared. He is on the verge of tears.
And he’s trying so hard to pick up the pieces of his broken self-image.
To keep them from rolling away any further.
Him lashing out at All Might of all people seems more a way to convince himself, rather than anyone else.
Here’s his big hero saving him. Again.
Surely he’s not that weak. Surely he wasn’t scared. He’s supposed to be a hero himself.
And then bad stuff keeps happening, because Bakugou cannot catch a break.

He is now a villain’s pawn.
That is, in the world of Bakugou Katsuki, like the worst thing he could be.
A pawn is not the best piece on the board. It’s not the hero. It’s not the King.
It’s disposable. It’s, well, an extra.

Please look at those eyes.
That is pure, frustrated desperation.
Because he has enough strategic insight to know that All Might will always try to save him first. Even while All for One beats him up. He’s a Burden.

This is like everyone’s favourite panel, for a reason.
This panel/page/whatever is the culmination of an awful lot of character arcs, all of which deserve their own long ass post. It speaks of Kirishima’s friendship, of Midoriya’s understanding of Bakugou’s character.
But also, this brings Bakugou himself back to what he was several stories ago: Faith in his Classmates.
Or at least in Kirishima.
That guy is ok.

The reason for All Might’s demise

I would like to say that this is the lowest it gets for Bakugou.
But it’s not.
There’s the bit with the hero license.

Which I think really hits him hard.
Because again, that was his pride, his brashness costing him.
His attitude, his inherent sense of self, the way he deals with people.
He’s being told officially that this isn’t hero-like behaviour.
That to be the man he wishes to become, he needs to change.
And as we see him slowly develop, I do think it’s starting to trickle in.
In a good way.Bakugou’s a practical kind of guy, he could just start ‘acting’, and looking the part, Best Jeanist style, but this kid is not like that.
In many ways he’s too honest, he hates lying. He doesn’t want to just look like a hero, he wants to BE one, he wants to Live the Life.
And he has serious issues lining that up with what’s been happening to him lately.
But you already know which scene I’m going to cover next.

All this time, whenever Bakugou was being torn down, Deku was being propped up. Whatever their power balance was at the start, it’s almost completely upside down now. What was once a pebble on his road to greatness, is now the big fish in the pond.
Deku fights full power Todoroki, Deku gets his license, Deku has a privileged relationship with All Might
Deku Deku Deku.

And somewhere in the back of his head Bakugou is still not over the fact that this quirkless kid is now the big hero. Dealing with that is… difficult.

Bakugou, I think everyone realizes, is not good with feelings.
He can strategize, he can study, he’s a smart kid.
But god damn does he suck at processing or voicing his feelings. It takes him ages to deal with all the shit that’s happening to him. And, to be fair, a LOT of shit happens to him.
And when he gets confused about how he feels about shit, things literally blow up.

Which is exactly what happens in Midoriya fight.Hooo boy the Midoriya fight.
I’m going to leave the Bakugou-Midoriya meta for another novel length post, but let’s make it clear that this whole fight is a very visual representation of two people trying to come to grips with at least ten years of repressed feelings.

For Midoriya, it’s all the years of bullying, of looking up to someone who thought he was nothing, of trying to save and understand Kacchan over and over again and getting rebuffed.
For Bakugou, it’s coming to grips with this kid who has always ‘looked down on him’, who messed up his narrative, his self-image, who now threatens to surpass him, if he hasn’t already. Who is All Might’s friggin Chosen One.
What also comes to a head here is everything that has happened the past few weeks.
Bakugou feels weak. He feels guilty. All his posturing, all this attitude he’s always had, it’s all blown up in his face.
Who he is, who he has always been, his view of himself has completely crumbled.

His big idol, his hero, the person he admires most in the world, the one he wants to surpass.He feels personally responsible for his downfall.
Never mind that it’s not true.
This is a kid who has seen his entire self-image fall down. From the perfect hero origin, the fated successor to All Might, tumbling all the way down to ‘reason for All Might’s end’.
That hurts, man.

Healing

I really hope this is the bottom for Bakugou. I really, really do.
He’s not active in the current arc (chapter 144) which conveniently gives him some time to process things.
We’ve been shown before that he always needs a bit of time.
Change in Bakugou is slow, gradual, but it’s there.
And it is reassuring that his relationship with Midorya has normalized, or at least calmed down.

Lookit this little shit lowkey attempting to give Deku advice.
It’s a good start.
When you’ve been torn down completely, there’s only one thing to do, and that’s to build yourself back up.

And I don’t know if he realizes this,
but everyone also loves a good Redemption Story.

Aizawa is one of the cleverest, most underrated characters in BnHA, and I’m not just saying that because he’s voiced by Suwabe and therefore immediately on Lethey’s Love List. This is a guy that sort of drags himself through life, doing good deeds without seemingly getting a lot of satisfaction from it. He’s almost an anti-hero even though he’s more pure than several of the other characters in the series. So let’s break him down.

Out of the Limelight

Aizawa is an ‘underground’ hero. He avoids the media, he stays out of all the flashy stuff and really, the only reason people like Izuku know his name is because, well, Izuku is a massive nerd.
As a hero, but also personality-wise, Aizawa is a clear foil for All Might. One is always smiling, embracing fame to become a symbol of peace that stops villains everywhere from even wanting to start shit. He’s super flashy, cares deeply about appearance and also he’s just… huge and muscular.Eraserhead, meanwhile, has a resting bitch face, looks like he hasn’t showered in days, wears basic black pyjamas wherever he goes and he shrinks back from attention like a vampire seeing the first rays of the sun.
This contrast extends to their fighting style. All Might is all about power and speed. He’s an all-rounder that overwhelms his opponents with a super-quirk. Meanwhile, Aizawa is an incredibly specialised hero that needs a clear strategy and an extensive knowledge of martial arts to even stand a chance. In many ways All Might is to Aizawa what Izuku is to Shinsou, someone blessed with overwhelming power and therefore hard to deal with. It’s not really that difficult to see why they don’t get along very well.

Fundamentally, though, Aizawa looks the way he does because he gives absolutely zero fucks about how he comes across. You see this when he decides to (or was forced to) make an effort after the forest camp.
He’s totally capable of looking less villainous.
Put him in a suit and he may not look like a full blown superhero, but he’s at least passable as a Japanese salaryman.

When given free reign, however, he cares not. He’s basically introduced to us as the apathetic, possibly even cruel teacher who cares little for his students. Superhero Snape. He’s grumpy, he makes them go through gruelling tests and he threatens to expel them at a moment’s notice. This turns out, of course, to be a logical ruse (he also has a really awful sense of humor).

The workaholic

What’s interesting about him as a character, is that as you start reading BnHA, it becomes clear that this initial idea is almost completely wrong.
For one: he carries a sleeping bag around and catches a nap at any opportunity given to him. Not because he’s lazy. But because he’s extremely sleep deprived. Because this idiot never stops working.
Aizawa appears to have very little life outside his work. We know that his room is bare, he teaches during the day and he does most of his hero-ing at night. He doesn’t appear to have much of an off switch.

That scene is a rather nice one from the later chapters. Everyone’s being called up and it’s the middle of the friggin night. Nedjire is half asleep, at the same time we see the others in their jammies. What is Aizawa doing at this ungodly hour?Working.
Multitasking, even. On two devices. Probably planning shit.
This is the reason that man teaches from a sleeping bag. He’s trying to fit too many hours of work into a single day, and tries to somehow fit the necessary sleep in by multitasking.How very Japanese of him.
But also.
Can we please talk about this?

Why the hell is a fully bandaged up, injured man, at work?
Dude got nearly killed on school premises. By any insurance policy in the modernized world, he should be on sick leave, watching the whole thing on tv, with a nice cup of tea and maybe some grapes or something by his side.
You can’t tell me UA has that bad of a health policy, the damn school probably has the most expensive insurance in the world. But nope, he sitting in a booth commentating. Because Yamada asked him. Please note that several of the teachers are just up in the crowd, watching the games.
They could have gotten Blood Baron or Nedzu to do it.
But no, get the workaholic who can’t even lie in bed for a day when all his bones are broken.

The teacher

When I first started reading BnHA, I heartily wondered why the hell they’d put someone like that in front of a class. But again, once you get to know him, it turns out this man is a really good teacher. I certainly never had anyone pay that much attention to me and my well-being when I was in school. He understands a bunch of his kids better than they do.See exhibit A: Bakugou.

Aizawa’s teaching style is very much a ‘hands off’ kind of thing. He doles out advice, he makes them run themselves ragged, but in a very specific sense, he also Trusts them. Even the explodey one. He has implicit faith in them, because he’s observed them.

He can almost predict them.See exhibit B: Izuku.

He knows Izuku enough to know, for instance, that he *cannot* stop himself from being a hero. He can’t. He waded into the sludge monster to save Kacchan. He chose saving Uraraka over getting a shot at the entry exam. The forest, the kidnapping, all of it. He will choose the saving option every time.
That’s why this is such a lovely scene. It really shows how well Aizawa knows his pupils. He knows he can’t stop Izuku so he’s just kinda… going along with it.
He knows there’s no point in telling Izuku not to go. So he decides to let him, if only so he can keep an eye on him.

I mean.. Especially when it comes to these two, Aizawa is a bit of a softy? I’m sure he’d prefer the term ‘realist’ but come one. Softie.

The Reluctant Dad

Speaking of softies. BnHA has a surprisingly large amount of father figures. Maybe it’s because Izuku’s dad is absent, but the theme sort of runs through the whole thing.
The dads in this series range from the loving, supportive examples like All Might, or Bakugou’s and Jirou’s perfectly normal dads, to more tough loving guys like Gran Torino. They go all the way into the utter shit and abusive section, with Todoroki Sr.
The Big Bad is, in a rather premeditated way, a father figure to Shigaraki. Even All Might and Shigaraki himself have a rather messed up bond that mirrors some father-son elements.
But out of all of these, the most grumpy dad is doubtlessly Aizawa. This is a guy who’s been given twenty highly rambunctious kids and who Cares Deeply about them, despite his vocal assurances that he would rather be sleeping.
He then goes and adopts another one in the form of Shinsou (sort of, that might just be my wishful thinking).

It’s interesting to note that Aizawa is very much a dad of the ‘papa wolf’ variety. He will protect the shit out of these kids.
This is a guy who, as mentioned, has a very specialised fighting style that works best against small groups, for small periods of time. So obviously he jumps in the middle of a veritable army of villains to give his students a chance to escape , papa wolf style.
That bit up there where he saves Tsuyu? Despite being very nearly dead? Yeah.
He will also protect their Honour, like when he calls out the crowd on their (wrongful) estimation of Bakugou in the Uraraka fight. He will even, in a way, protect them from themselves.

I’m personally really in love with the fact that he’s aware of his role, as a teacher, an adult, a substitute father figure, but that he doesn’t particularly want it?
Like he knows he’s a teacher, and teachers/adults behave in a certain way. You see it a little here, when he brings Kouta back to relative safety. A big part of Aizawa, you see, admires the hell out of Izuku. This is the kid that surprised him. The kid that wants to be a hero so badly that he’s willing to break himself over and over again, to save people. He gets that.
But at the same time he knows that he has to try and keep Izuku in line.

And keeping Izuku in line is one hell of a job.
Definitely the part of the job that he doesn’t particularly enjoy.
Even when he’s legitimately angry.
Even when he has to play the strict one to All Might’s entirely too soft heart.

The repentant

Diving straight into headcanons now. Be warned.

I’ve already talked about how Aizawa understands Shinsou in a way that Yamada, or All Might, or people like Todoroki or Bakugou could never understand. He knows what it’s like to, in a way, be weak. To be specialised.
In order for him to be a hero, he has to not only be strong, he has to be smart. I think part of the reason he appreciates Bakugou like that, is because he’s Both.

But back to the headcanons. We know nothing of Aizawa’s past (as of now, chapter 143, when I write this) but doesn’t it sort of seem like there’s some big dark secret in there? He certainly acts like he has some kind of regret.

He had to go through a particularly gruelling time to become the hero he is today. And he doesn’t even get to be the good kind of hero. He does not get shampoo commercials and adoring crowds. He gets long nights of sneaking around and being beat up, and a day job as a teacher.

What the hell for?

Thing is, he did expel a whole class. And while we’re first assuming he did it because he’s a jerk, in a way he does it to save them from what he believes is cruelty. It turns out he cares, you see, he cares an awful lot about his students.

Doesn’t that suggest some kind of deep seated issue?

We know little of Aizawa’s past, other than that he went to UA with Yamada, but his actions and his words suggest that he definitely has seen some pain. Maybe one of his hero friends died. Maybe he saw classmates fail to fulfil their dreams. Maybe one of his ex-students got hurt and he saw it as a personal fault of his. Personally, I think his motivations might lie closer to Tenya’s, with some sibling he looked up to, who failed and became his main motivation to succeed. But that’s just a theory. Either way, he’s seen failure. Maybe he’s lived it. He’s seen what it can do to a person, especially in a high stakes environment like the hero business and he appears to have made it his personal mission to stop this from happening by being the most nurturing, supportive person a grump like him could be.

So.Y’all know UA has a mole problem, yeah?
I’m far from the first to come up with a theory on this, but I’m happy to note that I did (I think) arrive upon a new suspect.

For context: after the villains attack UA, it becomes increasingly clear that someone in that school is a traitor. They’re either working for Shigaraki, or as a subsidiary of his ‘sensei’.Deduction methods: I’m mostly going by elimination, Sherlock Holmes style. Also, I’m basing myself on the following classic narrative rule: If you’re going to have a traitor in the midst of your cast, you have to introduce them way before anyone knew there even was a traitor. If a writer goes ‘oh, here’s our traitor, the person that showed up right before they got found out’, that is lame. Like… super lame and I give Horikoshi more credit than this. Dude put cameos of several characters in the very first chapter of the manga. He knows what he’s doing.

The villain invasion

Let’s start with the first time we see Shigaraki and his cronies in action (incidentally it is also the part where BnHA stops being a high school slice of life romp and starts getting Serious).
So, the invasion starts with an electrical cut-out, which shuts off the trespasser sensors. Then the villains use Kurogiri’s ability to flood in.
Straight off the bat, the following teachers are proven innocent, by virtue of nearly dying trying to protect the students:

Aizawa

Thirteen

All Might

The following are also out of the picture for really messing up Shigaraki’s plans. I mean. There is such a thing as acting to avert suspicion, but for a spy this probably goes too far:

Izuku (duh)

Todoroki, Bakugou and Kirishima

The five kids beating up/sabotaging Kurogiri at the entrance: Iida, Uraraka, Shoji, Sato and Sero (Ashido is present but doesn’t actually do anything).

I’m going to put Snipe on the Innocent List as well, for shooting the hell out of Shigaraki.

Right here, that’s like half of class 1-A in the innocent pile. Please note that I’m not taking off any of the other teachers that show up to Save the Day. That’s their job, you see. Not coming along to save the kids would make them suspicious.

People that are Highly Suspicious after this incident:

Aoyama and Hagakure: where they go tho?

Kaminari: because of the electric blast at the start. However, it is heavily suggested that the electric villain that captures him, Momo and Jirou is the one messing up the sensors.

Extra thoughts:

The rescue mission exercise was a surprise. At least to the students of 1-A. This makes it less likely that the traitor is one of the class and more likely that they are faculty. Although any spy worth their salt could, of course, have snuck into the teacher’s office.

The villains, and this is a major point in Izuku’s water fight, don’t know the kid’s quirks. If the traitor is 1-A or, for that matter, someone who regularly teaches them, they should probably know them at least a little? They had that physical test and everything. Again, though, I can’t really rule them out because the info they gained from the test is vague at best, and they may not have had the time to relay it fully.

With that said, let’s go to the next incident.Everything from this point is a Manga Spoiler, so please beware.

The forest camp

Now this is an interesting one.
Again: villains attack our heroes, this time both classes 1-A and 1-B.
Accompanying them on the boot camp are homeroom teachers Blood King and Aizawa, and the Wild Cats hero group.
Aizawa mentions several times that they took serious security measures, that the place is only on a need-to-know basis. Again, I’ll be putting people in the Innocent pile merely on actions that mess up the villain’s plans, not actions done that could conceivably be a cover.
The ones already on the safe list are disregarded (like, yes, I know Aizawa is amazing, so are Izuku and Bakugou. They are Innocent unless they do something stupidly suspicious).

So, in order, on the Innocent list:

Yaoyorozu (for saving most of 1-B with her gas masks) and Awaze, Tetsutetsu, Ibara, Kodai and Kendou

Also gonna put Tokoyami here, since he (sorta inadvertedly) beat up Moonfish, and Asui for trying to save Bakugou

If we follow through with the ‘getting themselves nearly killed’ rule, then Tsuburaba, Honenuki, Hagakure and Jirou are also innocent.

In the post story panels, some more 1-B kids are shown unconscious, including Bondo and what appears to be Kaibara

Our Suspicious pile is rapidly getting smaller, since a large amount of 1-B is now proven innocent.

So who is Highly Suspicious this time?

Anyone in the lodge. This is the safest place to sit the whole attack out. It’s only ever attacked by fake versions of Dabi. If a traitor was working with the villains and actually on the grounds, this is the best place for them to be.
Who is here?

Ashido and Kaminari

Sero, Satou, Kirishima

Monoma

Blood King

So let’s look at some leftover suspects

In Class 1-A there’s not many left.

Kaminari: this guy has a whole theory about him being the traitor (part 1 here and part 2 here, both by the incredible @msleilei​). And while I understand the theory, I’m not really buying it? To fail the exam, to place himself outside the camp… for one, that’s Joker levels of pre-planning and I kinda don’t see him do that? More importantly though. While Kaminari didn’t join his buddies on the ‘save Bakugou’ mission, he did know about the plans. Wouldn’t he have at least mentioned it to his villainous employers? That whole raid came as a complete surprise to the bad guys.
There’s some more arguments in his defence, @red-riot-kirishima-eijirou​ sums them up quite nicely here.

Ashido: mostly a suspect for being in all the right/wrong places. The same argument goes for her though: she knew about the hide-out raid.

Koda, Mineta and Ojiro: by the simple reason of not being heroic enough to be ruled out. Again: hide-out raid pretty much scratches them off.

As for 1-B. We actually got a lot of them on the Innocent list, which warms my heart because these kids are every bit as brave and cool as the ‘main’ class. Give them all the love.
Having said that:

Monoma: Was in the lodge. Appears to have motive, though not particularly against All Might I guess. I’m gonna be an ass here and go ‘too friggin obvious’. He’s mostly a comic relief character. I will buy a hat and eat it if he turns out to be the traitor.

The rest of class 1-B: harking back to the first narrative rule. We really don’t know enough about these kids. We haven’t seen much of them. It wouldn’t really be shocking if any of them turned out to be the traitor.

Extra notes on the students:

Kirishima: there is a really fun theory that, despite (or because) of his behaviour, Kirishima is the traitor. I don’t buy it, mostly because it would break my friggin heart. But it’s a good read by @red-riot-kirishima-eijirou​. It basically plays on Kirishima’s possible past as a villain, or the kid of a villain.

Tooru: yeah, I dispelled her earlier, but this is really a rather good one. Like a Really Good One. Especially since Tooru falls outside the ‘hide-out raid’ argument. She was unconscious in the hospital when the rest of 1-A discusses their plans.

This is definitely one of the more convincing theories I’ve seen so far. Still, I’m more inclined to go with ‘Tooru is a coward’ than with anything else. Mostly because she very nearly got herself killed during the training camp which, if she’s such an amazing spy, would be a dumb thing to do.

What about the staff?

I said earlier that it seems more likely that the traitor is faculty, rather than students. Focusing mostly on the ones we actually somewhat know, here’s a breakdown:

Nedzu: mostly suspicious because he has reason to hold grudges against humans, and also because he stalled the heck out of All Might during the UA invasion. Interestingly, this is the same thing that proves him innocent? Yes, All Might was late in rescuing students, but he was literally the reason the villains were even there. Him being late gave the kids and Aizawa some time to thin the horde a little, meaning All Might didn’t have a big crowd to fight. Also, All Might only barely made it in Muscle Form. If he’d been there since the start, he’d have reverted to Skeletal All Might before the end of it.

Recovery girl: can’t be it, for the simple reason that she doesn’t just know about All Might’s condition. She is one of the few people who knows about One for All. If she worked for Shigaraki, he would have also known, and he’d know why Izuku is so special. He doesn’t. He’s mostly mildly confused and frustrated by the kid.

Cementoss, Present Mic and Midnight: Would they know the location of the training camp? The camp was changed at the last minute, with the specific reason to keep its location on a ‘need to know’ basis. Since none of these people have any reason to be near the training camp, they’re don’t ‘need to know’.

So that leaves….

Blood King. You know there’s a reason I put him last, yes?

Yes, my money is on Blood King.Hear me out.
I honestly never thought of him until I started crossing people off the list, and started putting stock into things like the lodge location. And honestly… it makes sense?
If we go back to the invasion: as a teacher he knows the schedule. Heck, he probably helped create the damn schedule. Please remember that this is a school with two classes in the same course. 1-A and 1-B are bound to have very similar curricula. They have literature, English… and rescue class. I dare say All Might and Thirteen staged (or planned to stage) two of those rescue mission classes. The villains just so happened to conveniently attack 1-A, not 1-B.
He shows up at the end with the rest of the heroes because essentially, that’s his job. Any harm has pretty much been done by then. We also don’t see him doing much other than carry Nedzu around.

At the training camp, he’s present and, as mentioned, at the lodge. And here is where it gets interesting. We do see him fight, but the only dude he harms in any way, is a clone of Dabi. He overpowers him almost immediately but again, he’s not actually hurting Dabi. If he knows it’s a clone he could go all out even if they’re on the same side.
Furthermore…. That’s a handy circumstance, isn’t it? We know Dabi specifically attacks the lodge like that to keep the people inside occupied and away from Bakugou. Remember, the whole point of that raid is to steal Bakugou and Blood King is too ‘busy’ keeping kids safe from a fake Dabi during the entire raid to go out and prevent that. He doesn’t try to stop Aizawa but he also, rightfully, assumes the guy won’t be able to save every one of them by himself, especially since Bakugou is on the other side of the forest when the attack hits and there’s plenty of villains in between. Before Deku comes up with the info, Aizawa is probably not even thinking about saving Bakugou. In any normal circumstances, King of Explodo Kills would be one of the people least in need of rescuing (together with, like, Todoroki).

I could be wrong, but I don’t see Blood King show up during the hideout raid or the 8 Precepts raid.
So much, so coincidence. Right?

One more thing

In which I bring it home.

Remember Shigaraki’s motive for invading UA?
One of the main reasons he set up this plan, is to defeat All Might, and he thinks he can do it, because he was given intel that the dude is weakened.Who the hell told him?
There’s a few options, of course, his All for One could have deduced it, but why would Shigaraki doubt information from his master? He trusts that man more than anything in the world. I believe he got this tidbit from his spy. Someone he’s not entirely sure of yet.
At this point, none of the students, apart from Izuku, know about his true form.
However: several of the teachers do know. Cementoss does. Aizawa does. Nedzu does. Recovery Girl does.
I’ve already ruled these out.
You know who else knows?Blood King does.Slaps both hands on the table
The vamp did it!

This is of course, just my theory. The more traitor theories I read, the harder it gets to figure it out.Who do you think it is?

I’ve been thinking about Aizawa Shouta a lot lately.This is embarrassingly long.

Aizawa has built a pretty massive wall around himself. He’s kinda distant, cold almost, even to people he respects (like All Might or Yamada). It will take time for him to warm up to you, to put it mildly. He’s a hero and a teacher, and both these roles require a certain level-headedness that clashes with romance. Even if it’s love at first sight, he’ll move slowly and methodically. Think casual talk about the weather or some news event. -low key checking if you have a criminal record- It’s not that he’s afraid to confess, he just really wants to know you before he makes the conscious step to move further. A relationship is a Decision to him. It entails a whole bunch of checks and risks and adjustments. He does not take it lightly. Incidentally, that means that if you come on to him too fast, he’ll definitely block you.

No PDA. Ever. He’s extremely protective of his privacy and very aware of the dangers of being a hero’s loved one. This man is genre-savvy enough to know of the concept of ‘girlfriend/boyfriend in a fridge’ and he absolutely will not stand for that. In public, you guys mostly look like acquaintances or friends. Unless they’re Yamada and can read him like a book, most people wouldn’t know you two are dating.

As such, dates with him aren’t really the typical ‘dates’. He prefers to spend time with you in an environment in which he’s comfortable (*cough* blanket burrito *cough*) and he’s always slightly weary in public. He’ll take you to dinner if you really want, or to a movie in a smaller theatre, but he won’t be able to truly relax and open up until you’re both home.

Honestly he probably prefers stay-in dates. Quiet time spent together, either watching something or sitting side by side working on your own thing. I don’t see him being much of a gamer, but he’ll be perfectly content snoozing on your lap while you play, only to occasionally offer snark or a piece of strategy advice when your character dies.

I don’t see him being much of a cook, because while I believe he balances his nutrition as much as the next top athlete, I don’t think he cares enough about presentation and taste to be a kitchen genius. Having said that, he’d probably love it if you were? He admires skill and intelligence, so he would love to watch you quietly concentrate on preparing food, or gardening, or writing or tinkering with electronics. Whatever it is. He gets a certain calm feeling of well-being from seeing you content in your own little world doing something you love. He’d probably not straight out watch you, but sort of slink in and sit nearby with his tablet, like the cat that he is.

Very low maintenance as an s/o, and he probably needs you to be similar. He’s a busy man. This isn’t to say he’s averse to affection. Feeling the warmth of you, close to him, fills him with a joy he’s never going to be able to put in words. Expect him to snake an arm around you or to lean in when you’re on the couch. He’ll sort of sneak closer if you’re sleeping in the same bed, all subtle like. If you’re working and he’s feeling particularly needy, he’ll come up from behind and bury his head in the crook of your shoulder. Please note: this tickles.

In the same vein, I don’t see him as a very jealous person. For him to even open up to you in any way, let alone to be your S/O, he’d have to utterly and completely trust you. Don’t expect a reaction if you blatantly flirt with people or try to get a rise out of him at some party you dragged him to (as if he’d go out of his own volition). Whatever you think you’re doing, it’s not going to work and it will definitely not be appreciated. He’ll either ignore it, or if it’s rude enough to hurt him, scold you when you get home. He’ll tell you that if you want someone more flashy, you should just go. Playing this particular game a few more times is a good way to get him to leave you. What he needs more than anything is someone he can trust and just sort of exist in the vicinity of. Someone that will love him in the same quiet, reassuring way that he cares for them, despite the rough exterior and the random flashes of tsun.

Hates the beach. He prefers to keep his skin covered when outside, possibly out of some insecurity about his scars, so he doesn’t really like to wear just swimming trunks. Also the sand gets between his toes. If you were able to drag him away from his work for a well-deserved vacation, your best bet is probably a nice mountain or woodsy retreat. He doesn’t mind hiking or getting some fresh air. Even camping is an option. You know this caterpillar can sleep anywhere he drops his sleeping bag.

While he doesn’t look like he takes good care of himself, I believe he’d pretty good at keeping his living environment tidy. He dislikes clutter, because it gets in his way, so living with him is fairly easy in this respect. He has this underlying current of always bringing an empty plate with him if he goes to the kitchen, or subconsciously picking up trash when he walks through a room.

Aizawa would be a pretty calm dad. I mean, he already is sort of a substitute dad for his students, so he’d ease into having actual offspring without much difficulty. Please imagine Aizawa holding a small baby and just… sighing while it pukes milk all over his black shirt.

If he was babysitting a rambunctious toddler and also having a lot of work to do, his s/o would absolutely come home to find the child entangled in his scarf, restrained but happily playing with a few toys within arms reach. Meanwhile dad is on the couch, grading papers.

As a father, Aizawa’s methods would be similar to his teaching. He’s fairly relaxed, almost giving the impression that he doesn’t care (he cares a lot). He’s strict when he needs to be, and he implicitly trusts his children. This is the kind of parent that would explain the dangers of the world, and then if his kid rebels and does it anyway, he’d pluck them out of the mess, dust them off and go ‘see, this is why I told you not to do that. Now don’t do it again’.

He’s seen enough kids grow up to know by age six whether or not his child is cut out to be a hero. The nature of their quirk, their physical abilities, their drive, their personality. He’s got it all in a little mental list with either a green or a red check mark at the bottom. Having said that, he doesn’t particularly *want* his kids to become pro heroes. It’s a hard life, it’s dangerous and even if they do everything right, they may not make the big leagues. He would give his children free reign to figure out what they want to be, and then support them in that choice. I expect he’ll be a bit reluctant if they land on ‘I wanna be like Deku!’ but do imagine cute little beginner sparring sessions. S/o has a secret stash of pictures of him and his kid in the backyard practising hand-to-hand combat.

NSFW

Eraserhead never knew how good a nice massage or back rub could feel until you coaxed him into letting you have your way. He leads a fairly rough life, so just having someone work out all the knots and bumps is a good way to shut him down completely. If you get him into a bath with you and scrub his back or work your fingers over his scalp as you wash his hair, he sort of.. . goes blank. Error: Aizawa.exe not found. Two minutes later he’s just snoring.

With his hobo looks, gruff personality and singular work focus, he’s not the world’s most experienced lover. He probably went on a few dates, maybe even had a longer term lover but he’s just kinda… awkward? He’s a studious kind of man, though. He’ll figure it out.

Dude has dry eye so he likes to close his eyes when he’s intimate. That way the stings don’t bother him and he can concentrate more on his other senses. Which incidentally makes him a rather sensual lover. He loves the smell of your hair, the taste of your sweat running down your neck. He likes to listen to your breath stutter when he makes a move that’s just right.

Aizawa’s hands are course because he’s spent ages practising martial arts, without ever using gloves. The skin is hardened, with thick calluses, so when he’s touching you, he prefers not to use the pads of his fingers or his palm (unless you’re into that, of course), but rather the back of his hand or his lips. He’ll trace your skin with the softer sides of his index or his knuckle.

He probably has several scars on his body. Because of his martial arts training, his lower arms, hands, face and most of his legs are not very sensitive, which makes it extra fun to look for the places on his body that *do* cause some reaction. Think sides, lower abdomen, inner thighs, that kind of thing.

Perhaps unsurprisingly but: quiet lover. If you’re getting anything more than a soft sigh or a low rumble next to your ear, you’re doing something very right.

I know what you’re thinking, but I don’t believe he’s naturally into bondage? Even though he’d be very skilled at it? He associates the scarf with restraining villains or rowdy kids. You are neither. If having him tie you up is a huge kink for you, you can probably get him to try it, but it will take some convincing. Just know what you’re getting yourself into, because once he gets into it, he’ll turn into the world’s biggest tease. There will be dad jokes and logical ruses. It will be torture.